The history of immigration is related to labour. Migration took place wherever there was increased demand for labour. Effluent nations encouraged migration to get cheap labour for country’s development. Thus the Africans went to America, so are Indians to South Africa. Bangladeshis came to Assam in lakhs and still coming, albeit in lesser numbers. Assam once had plenty of resources to feed much more than its existing population. The state’s per capita income was higher than national average. Nobody though migration was a problem then. While migrants were happy not to starve anymore, locals did not mind it as migrants filled the demand for labour. Such labour force is cheap too. This is the reason migrants are still preferred for various kinds of jobs in Assam. This could be the reality worldwide. Otherwise, there is no reason for conservative nations like Germany to welcome Asian and African migrants with open arms, despite growing concerns over immigration in several other European countries.

There is a growing concern over influx into Meghalaya. The history of migration into the region is not new. Along with the British, various communities from the plains including Bengali, Bihari, Nepali, Assamese and Sikhs settled here. They were sought for different kinds of jobs then. The situation has changed now. While a major section of the outsiders are here in connection with their government jobs, there is another large section engaged in labour works. They are in high demand in Meghalaya due to their better skills (compared to locals) and, obviously, cheap wage. Even as civil society groups and some regional political parties express concern over demographic change brought by migrants, the labour force is still welcomed by all and sundry. Migrant labourers are preferred in every construction work undertaken even by local indigenous contractors.

Besides the migrants coming to earn their livelihood, there is also a growing number of tourists coming to the state. And sometimes, the nationalistic groups try to paint tourists with the same brush with migrants – as outsiders. At this juncture, the entry/exit points going to be set up across the inter-state border with Assam – Meghalaya has inter-state borders with Assam only – are not likely to end the so-called concern. The government, in apprehension of offending tourists and investors, already made it clear that the points would rather be facilitation centres with all kinds of amenities including eatery, accommodation, museum etc. But, in the backdrop of the entry/exit was a violent agitation by pro-ILP groups in 2013 that claimed at least three lives of non-tribal persons. With the contradictory positions of government and pro-ILP groups on the issue, it remains to be seen if entry/exit points would become another bone of contention leading to another period of unrest.

Among non-renewables, the world considers nuclear energy as the best option. The generation involves high risk, but the product is clean, not harmful for environment. None would dispute it. Nuclear energy is thought to be the future major source of energy. France has 58 nuclear reactors accounting for the country’s 76 per cent of total domestic generation of energy. In US the share of nuclear energy is 19.5% from as many as 99 reactors. Almost all European countries, considered as the developed world, have considerably higher ratio of nuclear energy generation compared to the developing world. China’s nuclear energy generation counts for only 3.03% while that of India is 3.53%. However, both the Asian giants are pursuing ambitious expansion plans in their nuclear capabilities in order to change the scenario in near future. While China aims at increasing its capability to 80 Giga Watt by 2020, India’s target for the same period is 14.6 GW. There is no going back in the race.

India has nuclear power stations in six states including a 1000 MW plant at Kundankulam in Tamil Nadu. The country’s first atomic power station was set up in 1969 at Tarapur, Maharashtra. The six states having atomic power stations/projects are – Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. All these plants run mainly on uranium imported from countries like Russia, Mongolia, Argentina etc. The country’s uranium reserves are scanty and dwindling. The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL), a subsidiary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has six underground mines and one open pit mine, all in the state of Jharkhand. There are two processing mining cum processing plants at Jaduguda and Turamdih in the state. As part of its expansion plans, a mine and processing plant are under construction at Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh. Pre-project activities are in uranium reserves in Karnataka, Telengana, and Meghalaya.

Protests against uranium mining and setting up nuclear reactors are not uncommon in India as well as rest of the globe. There are even research reports about groundwater contamination from such plants and mines. The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 due to a massive earthquake was an alarm call for the whole world. The incident even led to a drastic fall in nuclear outputs in several countries with several countries including Australia opposing nuclear fuel. But the world has not turned its back yet on this major energy source. The UCIL’s plan for setting up a mining and processing plant at Kylleng-Pyndemsohiong-Mawthabah (KPM) is just a very small part of the world vision. Yet the issue of uranium mining in Meghalaya is hanging fire for over a decade. If the overall nuclear record in the world can be safe so far, Meghalaya too may welcome it and let the local communities benefit from the infrastructure bonanza proposed by the government to the region, in lieu of uranium.

It has always been the strong, skilled, powerful and united that ruled over the weak, less-skilled and divided people. Unlike the common perception, in reality the question of majority and minority hardly matter when it comes to ‘who will rule whom’. It is only the current democratic set-ups in most of the countries that the majority community gets a bigger space. Historically, it was not so. The Mughals ruled India, still a Hindu-majority country, for several hundred years. A mere company from the British islands took the reins of the country, until the Queen took over for another hundred years. The best example of the brain and fist ruling over mere numbers was the famous adage that once ‘the sun never sets on the British empire’. Even now when the majority counts in decision making it is actually the Americas and Chinas that are virtually ruling the world. The whole world constantly monitors the happenings in a few economies and it’s not vice versa. Despite its burgeoning population, happenings in the African nations hardly make the world worried as does by dropping of a few cents in the NASDAQ market.

While Christians, Muslims and Hindus are world’s some of the biggest religious communities, the last being mainly confined to India, they are minorities in many countries of the world. There are other minority communities as well. These minorities have their own grievances – some fight it out, some take the injustices for granted, and some try to empower themselves through intellect and other means. The last option is the best as adopted by some minority communities like the Jews and Parsis. They have never taken up arms neither took it granted the injustice, if any, meted out to them. By their own virtues, they have been able to earn respect from other communities. And, the first path, most of the times, takes the community nowhere apart from causing bloodshed and pushing the community further backward, which is happening in the case of followers of Islam. Those who have responded to armed ‘struggle’, commonly called jihad, have served none keeping the emotion high and garnering more support for something known as crimes in the books of law. Therefore, the best jihad, if has to be said so, is to empower oneself by own virtue – it may take hundred years – rather than going into bloody conflicts.

India has always denied ISIS functioning in the country, although several Indians joined the ‘freedom struggle’ of the world’s biggest terrorist organisation in the Middle-east. India is fortunate not to face any direct attack from the outfit so far. Bangladesh too has denied ISIS hand in the recent Gulshan bakery incident even after ISIS claim and circulation of pictures of all the attackers with grinning faces holding weapons. The country has preferred them to consider ‘home grown militants’ with the excuse that all of them are young and bright boys from effluent Bangladeshi families. Even Pakistan does not want to associate it with the name of ISIS as it attracts global attention and scepticism about the country. The trend is to deny presence of terrorists with a foreign ideology.

In India, the authorities are divided on political lines about admitting existence of Islamic terrorism. ‘Secular’ groups prefer to say ‘terrorism is terrorism, it has no caste-creed’, a line of late adopted by even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known as a RSS hardliner, although his party loves to use the term ‘Islamic terrorism’. This tendency of denying presence of intrusion of terrorist elements in the society is seen every time there are such reports. It may be a tactic of the authorities not to let the public panic or an attempt to hide its failure to control such elements.

A recent report of infiltration of five alleged radicals, one of them English speaking, from Bangladesh into Garo Hills has caused a lot of concern. While Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma admitted sounding of a high alert in the state – although he did not specifically endorsed infiltration report – the security forces stopped short of admitting any such incident. Everyone hopes the report would be a rumour! But in case it is not, the forces have a lot to do. It is believed that the nation’s forces are competent to tackle such elements, as shown by busting of several such modules including in Assam. The region and the country have, for a long time, not seen major terrorist attacks. But this is not the time for complacency. It’s important for the forces to do their job rather than trying to save their skin.

Weighbridges are a vital means of revenue generation for states. It is through the weighbridge that commercial loaded trucks are weighed and taxed; crores of revenue generated. But their condition is pathetic, always. These are some of the most dirty and shabby places. The roads are bad wherever there is a weighbridge. Is it not an irony? Being earners of lakhs every day, should they not have been among the best places?

In Meghalaya, the state government recently closed as many as 11 weighbridges due to non-payment by the private lessees. The people were not bothered till then, until the government took a hurried decision to put one of them on the premises of the district transport office at Nongpoh. The place has so far been used as the only proper parking lot for tourist vehicles including various state corporation buses. It is but obvious that one there will be a weighbridge, there will be trucks which will bring along traffic jam, dust etc. It will no more remain a tourist place. The local groups of Ri-Bhoi district have opposed the weighbridge pointing out the traffic jam to be caused by the weighbridge. A post vegetarian restaurant adjacent to the DTO, along with several others inside the parking lot, is equally worried. They thrive on tourism. A truckers’ den would spell doomsday for them.

Shifting the weighbridge from Umling along the arterial NH-40 to Nongpoh seems to be a hurriedly taken decision, without any proper plan. It seems to be a temporary measure, but considering the flow of trucks on the route, the damage to the now decent place will be extensive. It is high time the government had a policy about setting up weighbridges without causing disturbance to the other commuters. The weighbridge on NH-40 should have a capacity of parking of at least 50 trucks while the erstwhile gate at Umling could not accommodate more than three-four trucks. If the National Highways Authority of India can get land for converting the two-lane Guwahati-Shillong road into four-lane, the state government should be able to get at least a proper plot to set up a weighbridge. Or the government is awaiting for the Centre to grant the money for the land and building which will earn the state crores!

There is a decline of militancy-related incidents in the past few months in Meghalaya. A lot of groups in Garo Hills, the present hotbed of militancy in North-east, have disbanded and the cadres resolved to join mainstream. The police must have played a great role in all of this. Full credit goes to the state director general of police (DGP) Rajiv Mehta. He must be instrumental in many of these groups coming over ground. But does it justify extension of his service for another three months, as desperately wanted by chief minister Mukul Sangma and his government? Does Mukul Sangma’s anguish against the Centre, which rejected his proposal, has any strong ground or there is something beyond what meets the eye?

Chief minister Mukul Sangma was so much upset over the PMO holding Mehta’s file that he went on to accuse the Centre of being interested only in playing politics (in Meghalaya?), and does not want to solve militancy. The strong reaction can have two possibilities. One is the obvious reason that Mukul did not want to lose the DGP at this crucial juncture when militancy is on a decline in his home turf. And the second possibility might be Mukul wanted his ‘close confident’ to complete some unfinished task where he might have personal interest, in the next three months. Mukul also did not make it clear as to what kind of politics the Centre wanted to play in this regard.

Although leadership has a definite role in bringing changes, the team in the process has a great role to play. It is not the DGP alone, but a lot of his subordinates have been playing key roles in the fight against insurgency. Some of them, by experience and quality, deserve to take the lead as well. Besides, there is hardly any precedence of any DGP getting service extension in the same post. At this juncture, extending the service of Mehta would have carried a wrong message to the next in line. It would have posed a question on their credibility to carry on the fight from the point it was left by Mehta. By showing his desperation, the chief minister already passed on this message. Mukul better correct his impression and take into confidence what he has in hand now.

Green is not always good. Green can be deceptive. The menacingly increasing broom cultivation across North-east has posed grave danger to the region’s bio-diversity. Brooms have replaced all kinds of vegetation in many low lying hills of the region. The people, obviously, have seen the quick money. Broom needs no maintenance, no regular sowing, clearing of weeds. Once cultivated, they just need to be harvested, again and again. The governments won’t intervene as hills are still green! And there is never-ending demand, although the source of such high demand is not clear. It’s certain that not all of them are going for sweeping the floors!

The broom bushes might be releasing the same amount of oxygen as did by the mixed forest that had to give way to the cash crop, on a vast scale. But it is sure that there is less number of living organisms there as used to be. These organisms, not comfortable with the broom atmosphere, have either perished or migrated to other safer places. But, thanks to rampaging human activities, there are very few safe places left for many forest dwellers (not human) on this earth. What we normally see is the replacement of forests by concretes and roads. The vast tracts of forest land converted into agriculture fields over the centuries are often undermined. Of course, humans cannot go hungry, so let others be! Knowingly or unknowingly, humans are doing grave injustice to other living organisms.

While there has been increased consensus and legal provisions about protection of forests in the plain areas, the hills of North-east still remained unprotected. Even the media don’t see the gradual change in the landscape as long as it is green! Be is broom or other mono cropping, the people in the hills are becoming increasingly dependent on cash rather than Mother Nature, which had always fed them. The increased dependence on one crop might boomerang any day, if there is a sudden drop in demand, which is quite possible, and which is not the case with mixed crops. A new trend of planting fruit saplings during tree plantation drives is welcome in this context. It’s high time the authorities sounded alert to the people about danger, bother environmental and economic, of broom cultivation and encourage them for mixed cropping with incentives.

In Asia, the two words separatism and terrorism are correlated. Where there is separatism, there is high probability of terrorism or insurgency, at least. Be it Kashmir valley or Nagaland, the spirit of separatism gave birth to terrorist forces. A mindset has been built in the country that separatism always leads to terrorism, a modern evil. There seems to be no way separatism – the ultimate objective is ‘freedom’ – can attain its goal without bloodshed. Will there be a day when separatists would never of violence even if decades go by without the demand being fulfilled. It can be. The Brexit (Britain’s example from European Union) is an example.

The British have sought separation from the EU for years so much so that Prime Minister David Cameroon last year made an election promise of conducting referendum on the issue. And his wish to Remain had to give way to the Leave voice, although marginally (51.9% : 48.1%). It also cost his chair as he announced resignation in October. Cameroon tried to allay the British fear of migrants from EU countries over-flooding the island nation. UK has been a popular choice to settle for millions of people from other EU member countries, taking advantage of the agreement to work and live anywhere. This trend did not go down well with the British people and there were intense campaigns for freedom from EU. But, there were no bloodshed over the demand in all these years.

Although terrorism is an often-pronounced word in European countries, the term has no relevance in this context where an entire country took a historic step, all peacefully. But, in Indian context, the forces that are seen engaged in terrorist acts cannot be blamed solely. While they have no patience or confidence to get ‘freedom’, there is lack of mechanism to address the root cause but to quell these voices. Dominating a popular voice with ‘iron hand’ cannot be imagined in European nations. You attain ‘freedom’ or not, peace is ensured. India has miles to go!

The United Democratic Party (UDP) of Meghalaya has made the first step towards joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The National People’s Party (NPP) is already on board. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which salvaged its fortune in Assam by aligning with BJP in recent assembly elections and back to power after 15 years, was also formally inducted into the NDA. As the NDA, which sounds more like BJP only, is something the regional parties of North-east would not be keen to be on board immediately, the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) is going to be the boat to the ship (NDA). The Himanta Biswa Sharma-led NEDA is a very well devised forum by the BJP to take over North-east, a Congress bastion for decades.

The UDP is a dominant political force in Meghalaya’s Khasi-Jaintia Hills having as many as eight MLAs in the 60-member House. If UDP fights the 2018 election on NDA banner there will be an increased tendency among other non-Congress parties too to join the bandwagon. Congress, already out from most parts of the country’s political map, will be in serious trouble then. So far, the BJP’s main bottleneck in intruding into the vote banks of the Christian-dominated hills has been the party’s pro-Hindu image. But once the party breaks into the regional parties and unite them against the Congress, it will be sooner than later the NDA flag fluttering in a few more states.

There has been anti-Congress sentiment all along in the North-east. That’s how regional parties were born. But they come into being and die into oblivion. That has been the thread. There was not common thread to unite them. None of these parties were in favour of BJP either. But with the saffron brigade engulfing the country slowly, there is an increased tendency among the regional parties to grab this chance to be in power. The UDP, thanks to its image of being a Khasi party, cannot think of holding the reins in Shilong in the coming years. This is the case with the National People’s Party (NPP) too. Being founded by Purno Sangma, NPP has a Garo image. UDP’s call to fight election on a common platform in the past did not yield any result. So, NEDA is the chance for every regional party to join the BJP-made platform and sit in the treasury bench, dominated by the Congress all these years.

In India, one person dies in road accident in every four minutes. Lack of safety in road transport is evident from frequent accidents across the world, mostly in developing countries. The accident at Sonapur in Jaintia Hills claiming 29 lives reminded all the past tragedies occurred at the place. The landslide-prone area is notorious for road accidents. In 2012, 31 people died as the bus they were in was washed away by landslides. Following a lot of preventive measures including a tunnel checked landslides to a great extent in the area, but it remained accident prone. In January this year too, 10 people died in a similar mishap there.

The road accident death ratio in India, 16.6 in 1 lakh population per year, is lesser than China’s 18.8 but higher than the US’ 10.6. European countries fare much ahead in this respect with UK 2.9, Germany 4.3 and Netherlands 3.4. Even Pakistan fares better than India with 4.2 deaths in 1 lakh population. African countries are the worst with Libya topping the list with 73.4 and Libya following at a distance with 33.7 deaths. While roads remained the basic means of transport in most countries, people in the developed countries are increasingly taking to other means like trains and planes. Though accidents on these two means of transport are not rare and casualties are high in case of any, they are far too less compared to road mishaps.

Most people in India cannot afford planes, and train is a better option. With a gradual shifting of transport load from roads to rails will also ensure less carbon emission, noise pollution etc., besides curbing the accidents. India has enough raw materials like stones and iron for making a massive makeover of its transport network in favour of railways. Although stricter traffic norms and better roads also can check the accidents the scene will not change much unless the traffic is diverted to other ways. Any Tom Dick and Harry cannot take the wheels of a train, like in case of a public bus in India. Slightest attention diversion might lead to a major mishap on road, unlike on the rails. There are hundreds others engaged in ensuring safety of a train. If one system fails another will function. Let good sense prevail in the hill areas of North-east where there is constant opposition to railways in fear of influx of “outsiders”. Let the Modi government get success in its aim to connect all north-eastern capitals by broad gauge network by 2020.